1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus such as a shopping cart (hand cart) or a shopping basket for use in the distribution industry, particularly in a store such a mass sales store, a convenience store or a supermarket to allow a customer to accommodate and transport a purchased commodity, and more particularly to a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanning function to allow a customer to purchase a commodity while the customer reads a commodity code such as a bar code attached to the commodity and also to a POS (Point Of Sales) system to which such purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanning function is applied.
2) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a POS system is employed in various stores such as supermarkets and convenience stores. In the POS system, a customer walks around in a store pushing a shopping cart or carrying a shopping basket, places commodities to be purchased into the shopping cart or the shopping basket, and comes to a settlement POS terminal (POS register).
Then at the settlement POS terminal, an operator takes out the commodities one by one from the shopping cart or the shopping basket and reads the bar codes (commodity codes) applied to the commodities by means of a scanner to effect registration processing. In particular, in accordance with commodity code information read from each bar code, the price of the commodity corresponding to the commodity code is retrieved from a commodity price file (PLU (Price Look Up) file), and a total amount of money of the purchased commodities is calculated to settle the accounts.
With such POS system, however, since an operator must perform a reading operation of a commodity code of each commodity, much time is required for such reading operation and a settling operation, which causes the customer to wait for a long time. Accordingly, in a time band in which customers are crowded, a queue of customers is produced in front of a settlement POS terminal, and additionally, produces a heavy burden on the operator.
Thus, in recent years, a shopping cart (scanning cart) or a shopping basket having a scanner (commodity code reading section) for reading a bar code (commodity code) applied to a commodity has been developed and are disclosed in various publications including, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Applications No. Showa 63-145591, No. Heisei 2-277412 and No. Heisei 5-81559.
In a POS system which employs a shopping cart or a shopping basket of the type mentioned, a customer reads a bar code applied to a commodity to be purchased by means of the scanner to register the commodity code information and places or accommodates the commodity into an accommodating section of the shopping cart or the shopping basket. Thereafter after selection of commodities to be purchased is completed, the commodities are placed into the shopping cart or the shopping basket and transported to a settlement POS terminal.
Then at the settlement POS terminal, the commodity code information (or commodity price information corresponding to the commodity code information) registered by the customer is down loaded, and a total amount of money of the purchased commodities is calculated based on the commodity code information (commodity price information) to effect settlement of the accounts.
With the POS system, an operator no longer needs to read the commodity codes of commodities one by one, and the time (register operation time) required for reading, processing and settling processing can be reduced significantly. Consequently, the customer no longer needs to for a long time any more and also the burden on the operator can be reduced remarkably.
In the POS system wherein an operator performs a reading operation for a commodity code to register the commodity, commodity registration of all of commodities accommodated in a shopping cart or a shopping basket is performed upon settlement of accounts. Accordingly, unless an intentional unjust act (shoplifting or the like) is performed, such unjust act that a commodity without settlement of accounts can be prevented.
Additionally, conventional purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatuses having a self scanning function described above or POS systems which employ such an apparatus do not include established means for detecting whether or not all commodities accommodated in a shopping cart or a shopping basket have been registered for commodity registration (the commodity codes haven been read), and the countermeasure against the case wherein a customer has placed a commodity into a shopping cart or a shopping basket without reading the commodity code by means of the scanner is not sufficient in the present situation.
For example, even if a customer fails to read a commodity code by means of the scanner, the commodity can be accommodated as it is, and an operator may possibly settle the accounts without being aware of such commodity. Accordingly, an unjust act such as shoplifting can be performed readily regardless of whether it is intentional or accidental.
In order to prevent such unjust acts, means have been proposed for causing, when a commodity code is read by means of a scanner, the color of the commodity code to be changed or for jetting colored ink to an area of the commodity code to clearly indicate that reading of the commodity code has been completed.
With the means, however, the color change condition or the application condition of ink must be checked, upon settlement of accounts, for the commodity codes of all commodities, and the burden on an operator cannot be reduced. Further, when one tries to return a commodity for which reading of the commodity code has been performed having intruded to purchase the commodity, the commodity code cannot be returned immediately to its condition before such reading, and a shopman must perform re-attachment of a commodity code (bar code) or a like operation. Further, the means which employs jetting of colored ink is not preferable in terms of sanitation where the commodity is food or the like.
Furthermore, in a conventional purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanning function described above or a POS system which employs the apparatus, since a final settling operation of accounts by an operator must be performed with a settlement POS terminal, a customer must wait for some interval of time at the settlement POS terminal, which imposes a burden on the operator. Therefore, it is desired to allow operations up to final settlement of accounts to be performed with each purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus, while preventing an unjust act, to achieve a reduction of the burden on an operator, a reduction of the number of operators and smoothing the flow of customers.